Pictures of Essica

Essica after the 9th grade awards.






















Essica posing for me in the park before the 9th grade dance.
































The girls are sassy!

















Aw, what a cute group.
















The redneck limo!

Dances, Grads and Dads Oh My

One and a half days left of school. I am officially off for the summer as I have no plans to sub the last two days. The kids unfortunately have to go. Essica is all prepared for the 9th grade dance tomorrow night. Her friends and her have everything all planned out. It sounds like my part is easy. I only have to get her ready with make up, hair, dress, nylons, shoes, accessories and send her on her way. One of her friend's neighbor is driving the group over in a trailer pulled by a tractor. This I can't wait to see. I guess it's going to be all decorated with lights. Should be lots of fun. The weather has been given strict instructions to cooperate for them. Afterwards they will stay the night at said friend's house and wear their dance clothes to school for the last day.

This is the weekend for Graduations and Dad's Day. Yesterday we endured enjoyed going to the rival school's graduation for Bubba's good gymnastics buddy, Alison. (Stargazer's daughter. You can read more about this on her blog.) Afterwards we went to her house for a cupcake party. I tried a vegan chocolate cupcake and it was amazing! It was a nice casual time with just a few family members and friends. I felt very honored to be included. While I know that our friendship with her family will always remain I was worried about how it will change now that Alison will be going off to college. In the few short years that our girls have been training together we've become very close. We've traveled all over the country together. We've experienced tornado warnings and electrical storms in the mid west, blinding downpours, flooding and oppressive heat waves back east, the Mall of America, police chaperones in Minneapolis, hotel hallway parties, DC in an hour, casino hopping in Vegas, Cirque Du Soleil, cheese heads, restaurants galore, airport sitting, car riding, bleacher sitting, beach walking, wilderness wanderings and so much more. Then there is the daily carpool driving, injury commiserating, booster club politics and meetings, meet hosting extravaganzas, competition stresses, check book blowouts and coaching dramatics. Is it any wonder that we've bonded over the years? It is the lack of these future shared adventures and debacles that causes me to worry that things will change too much and we might fade apart.

Then today Bubba and I attended a grad party for a senior whose family we've known for a very long time. This was another family that we met through gymnastics. There is actually a group of us that met this way when our girls were very young and training together. Over the years the girls have since scattered to different places. But today's gathering is proof that our friendships still remain as strong as ever. Four of these families showed up in support of the sister of their x gymnast friend. How cool is that? On the way home I was pondering over these similar events for different friends who all met because of a childhood sport. I got that warm fuzzy feeling inside and I now feel much more confident that all our bonds will continue to flourish and grow. Thank you guys for still being there. I love you all.

Dad's Day. Not so very different from Mom's Day around here. Mr Rainy went out and splurged on Mochas for us this morning. Then he put some pork in the crock pot for dinner, cleaned his garage, cut down a tree and did a bit of Costco shopping. He did receive cards and a present at some point, so not quite like Mother's Day. :)

HA!

Maybe I'm not cut out for blogging. I'm certainly not being very faithful. I'm also not following my own rules. I stated on day one that I would blog for myself but obviously I'm not because when I've got nothing I think is interesting I don't bother to blog. I understand that blogging should be like a diary where I just put down thoughts or things I did that day but I'm not doing it. I will try harder.

The last few weeks have been a bit stressful. I should have blogged about it but didn't want to make mountains out of mole hills. I feel like if I put down these thoughts that I'm just whining and making things worse than they really are. Obviously they are being worked out but still bugging me!

The end of the school year has many stresses but when you have children that are into more than the average teenager it gets to be really crazy. The last month I've been clothes shopping no less than 10 times. This is way more than my limit. A little random spring shopping is fine but when you have very specific items it get daunting and exhausting. Over the last month we've been to three malls (some more than once) and a few individual stores (some more than once) looking for these items. Did we find everything? HA!

Our 9th graders have many different year end festivities that require their parents to shell out a bucket load of clams. At the 9th grade awards ceremony the choir kids perform a very special song and dance performance that is quite lovely. It actually brings tears to my eyes. They sing All I Ask of You from Phantom of the Opera. The girls are required to wear long formal dresses and the boys tuxes. We lucked out when Bubba did this two years ago by borrowing a dress that I altered a bit to get it to fit her 5'0" frame. With Essica we were not so lucky. Because this was a costume and not a dance dress I could not justify spending hundreds for it. We did end up finding a clearance dress from JC Penny that was stunning. Just one slight problem. It was just a wee bit too small. We bought it anyway hoping by some miracle it would fit better later on. No such luck. Saturday morning Essica went on line to find a solution. The solution was actually quite brilliant. I bought some ribbon and created loops that I sewed on behind the back zipper. When only zipped part way up and with more ribbon laced through the holes it looked awesome! Just like it was made that way. It actually made the dress too big so I had to take in the sides a bit and move the straps but it turned out perfect. One stress out of the way.

On to dress number two. The all district 9th grade dance is also a formal and heaven forbid you wear the same dress twice so back to the store we went. This time looking for a short fun dress. We had some luck but not a lot. Essica tried on one she really liked but it wasn't dressy enough. So she went online and found the same dress in a different fabric and color. It seemed too good to be true. It was. It came and while it was very pretty it didn't quite fit well enough. So I return it to the store and she finds a different dress that just came in. To make this work she'd need some special undergarments. That seemed reasonable, right? HA! We went to every department, discount and lingerie store around. Finally found something suitable but not quite good enough for the dress we had. So back to drawing board. Return dress number two and find dress number three. The perfect little black dress. Thank God it fits and everything works with everything else. We also found shoes on clearance that would work with either dress. Can she actually walk in these? HA! Not my problem.

In 16 days, half our family will be leaving either the state or the country. These trips always require some extra purchases but when the one item needed is so specific as to color and fit, that just might be the straw that breaks my last bit of sanity. Essica's choir is taking a tour of Europe. Wow, right? HA! Oh yes, it's going to be grand and all that. I'm quite jealous as I doubt I'll ever see the places they are visiting. But if I actually find the last item they want her to have in her possession I'll be thrilled to send her off at the ungodly hour they're asking us to deliver her to the airport. Stone colored pants. First off, Stone? What exactly is that color? My initial thought was light grey. EHT! (that's the sound buzzers make when you're wrong.) Turns out it's like a vanilla milkshake with a just a touch of peanut butter added. The style and length actually doesn't matter for once. Shorts, capris, jeans or pants are all fine. Ok, sure, that sounds easy. HA! We did find many items that potentially would of worked, unfortunately Essica was not happy with the fit or style of any of them. We have 2 weeks left. Please God, help us!

There is more. Oh so much more. But for today, this is good.